We found this newspaper in an old iron safe that had previously belonged to my Great Aunt. The newspaper’s a whopping one hundred and fifteen years old and it felt a bit weird knowing that we were probably the first people to have looked at it since it had been stuffed into the back of the safe all those years ago.

Reading through the news from 1896 it was the adverts that really caught my eye. Produced in a time long before anyone had dreamt up the idea of brand identity or trading standards they come across as wonderfully naive. The Victorian copywriting trend for repeating words in capital letters is definitely an attention grabber. Who could possibly resist the charms of HAMS! HAMS! CHEESE! CHEESE! BACON! BACON! from Liptons grocery shop?

Sufferers of blood impurities must have been reassured by this very confident advert from Clarke’s World-Famed Blood Mixture. The typesetter has created a helpful column that screams THE BLOOD – just in case it wasn’t clear that Blood Mixture was for your, erm, blood.

Carters took a more playful approach to convince readers that their sugar coated pills really were the bees knees. Their little rhyme is ever so sweet, quite modest in-fact, when you consider that they’d found a cure for liver disease.

Hearts Content

When I become a very old lady I think I’ll end up living in something that resembles a Womble’s house which comprises of tunnels burrowed between walls of old stuff that I can’t bear to throw away.

In the meantime I’m trying to at least be more organised in how I store the objects that I keep accumulating. I gathered these gadgets together after a recent sort out in the attic. My kids have told me on no account must I throw away the old PS1 and Gameboy, which makes me think that this hoarding thing must be genetic.

The Walkman Sports is also staying with us. It belongs to my other half and I love how it symbolises the 80′s in its jaunty yellow casing. It makes me want to get a perm and then go for a jog whilst listening to Now Thats What I Call  Music 4.

The first time I used a Sony Walkman was when I was thirteen and the song was Malcolm MacClaren’s Madame Butterfly. An older (17) and wiser (had more cash than the rest of us) friend had turned up with his Walkman one evening and we all took turns listening to it and saying ‘WOW ITS AMAZING!’ really loudly. But it was amazing and I’m glad that I’m from a generation that saw this bit of technology appear for the first time because it felt completely new to be able to walk down the street immersed in your own world.

I’m also eternally grateful that the first song I heard on a personal stereo was by Malcolm Maclaren when it could so easily have been Wham.

Well, its been a long time, but Hearts Content is back home from the Charity Shop and has plenty of hand me down bits and pieces to share. We’re looking forward to dusting down the blog and soon have it looking as lovely as a bit of old tat from the Sunday Car Boot Sale.

To get our house in order we’ve upgraded to WordPress 3.1 (we were previously operating on a steampowered version from the olden days). Our upgrade is thanks to some sound advice from the good doctors at the Social Media Surgery followed by some technical geekery by Mr Cliff Manning.

This post started off as a test photo from Cliff to make sure the cogs were all working so, in the spirit of Hearts Content, we’ve borrowed it to welcome in this new era of secondhand stories.

Story Donated By Rachel McAlley:
I was recently at my Aunt’s having Sunday lunch and she invited me to rummage around her fabulously stylish closet and I was allowed to choose anything I wanted.  I instantly fell in love with this bag, especially with it’s little story.

My Aunt tells me that in 1957, a few weeks prior to their wedding, my Uncle went to Marbella for a gentleman’s holiday and returned to the UK with this absolutely gorgeous black leather shoulder bag.  The bag was given as a pre-wedding gift to my Aunt and since then she has used the bag as little as 3 times. You can see from the photograph it’s in absolutely pristine condition.

I have used the bag only once since my Aunt kindly donated it, however at the time I was a little nervous and wondered if the people around me could sense how precious the bag was to me, and now I’m secretly thinking that I should lock it away for another 52 years.

But …. it does look pretty darn good with my outfit today, maybe I’ll put it away in a safe place tomorrow!
Rachel McAlley
aka LadyRach on Twitter